Ah, Sinn Fein employ 61 staff in Dublin HQ and Leinster House

Queries submitted by The Irish Times to the major parties show that Sinn Féin directly employs 61 people in its party headquarters and in Leinster House.

The party has 14 TDs and three senators, compared to 34 TDs and Senators for the next smallest party, Fianna Fáil, but it employs 25 more people centrally. Sinn Féin has said that 41 of those work in its Parnell Square headquarters and in Leinster House, while 20 work in “other capacities”.

Parties remain well funded and staffed even within stricter fundraising limits The party with the next highest number of employees is Fine Gael with 38. Labour employs 27 centrally, while Fianna Fáil has 34.5 jobs in total.

Lower pay rates is an obvious reason, but unless you can trace the expenditure and the source of the money used to pay for these staff it’s hard to do much more than ask questions about the how?

Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty